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From 7,272 Applications to 1,046 Awards: The CHRP Scoring and Capping Process

When the application period for the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) closed on
April 14, 2009, more than 7,200 applications requesting more than $8 billion had been
submitted. With $1 billion available, the COPS Office was faced with the task of
establishing policies and procedures for distributing the funding in a manner that would
meet both the expectations of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as well as
the underlying statute and historic mission of the COPS Office. Beginning with the
design of a data-driven application form through the capping of awards, the process has
placed objectivity and balance at the forefront.

The COPS Office focused on balancing the need for federal assistance and the
intent of the Recovery Act, as measured by economic and fiscal health questions, with the
crime rate and community policing indicators that assist in measuring public safety and
law enforcement needs. The decision was made to balance the two categories of factors
equally. Additionally, multiple models were developed and tasked to determine the balance between
questions within each broad category. For example, within the 50 percent of the score
allocated to the need for federal assistance. Both measures of
acute financial distress and recent economic conditions as well as those of systemic
socioeconomic health were taken into consideration. Since this was the first time that some of these indicators were
being used to score applications, the COPS Office also queried a number of the submitted
applications. Then internal specialists followed up with applicants and publically available data on more
than 270,000 data points in the applications to ensure that the information was as error-free as possible before completing the scoring protocol.

Once the applications were scored, the next question faced was whether each department
would be allocated the money needed to hire all the officers it requested. The application
process had not imposed a cap on requests, which allowed us to collect valuable
information on the true needs of law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. In
looking at the applications and seeing indications of demonstrable need deep into the
rankings, it was concluded that more agencies would be served by a cap that would limit the
size of awards; otherwise a very small number of agencies would have consumed all the
available funding. The COPS Office instituted an award cap of 5 percent of the actual
currently sworn force strength (measured in full-time equivalents) up to a maximum of
50 officers. This cap ensures that the most agencies can be funded
without reducing any particular award to a level where it no longer represents a
meaningful increase in staffing levels.

Finally, two long-standing statutory requirements designed to ensure national distribution
of COPS Office funding had an impact on which applications were ultimately funded.
First, the COPS Office must distribute half of all hiring funds to agencies serving
populations of more than 150,000 and half to those of fewer than 150,000. Recognizing
this split, applicants were split into these two groups before scoring even began, so large
cities did not directly compete with small communities for CHRP funding. Second, by
law the COPS Office must ensure that at least ½ of 1 percent of hiring funds (in this case
$5 million) is allocated to each state or territory with eligible applicants. Although this
ultimately means that sometimes a lower scoring applicant in one state receives funding
ahead of a higher scoring applicant in another, this requirement helps ensure that smaller
states and territories are not shut out of the funding.

From the day the Recovery Act was signed, the COPS Office concentrated on building a
system for reviewing applications that would ensure fairness and objectivity. Throughout
the decision-making process the COPS Office conducted extensive research on
measuring key indicators, including outreach to other federal grant makers, policing
practitioners, criminologists, and public finance experts. With the unprecedented
numbers of applications, the emphasis placed on collecting publically verifiable data and
using analytical software programs to score applications was central to our ability to
distribute the CHRP funding in a timely manner. Readers who have additional questions
about the CHRP scoring and capping process are welcome to explore the resources
available on the COPS Office web site at www.cops.usdoj.gov/Default.asp?Item=2208
or call the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770.